Someone copied your website, your course, or your photos, and you never registered the copyright. Here’s exactly what you can and can’t do about copyright infringement without registration.

Attorney Jessica Eaves Mathews walks through what happens when your work gets stolen and you haven’t registered it: what tools are still available to you, what you permanently lose access to, and why sending a cease and desist too early can backfire. She also covers the timing rules that determine whether you can recover statutory damages, the contractor ownership trap that quietly costs founders their own copyrights, and the steps to protect your work before infringement happens.

Covered in this video:

• Why copyright exists automatically but enforcement doesn’t
• The Fourth Estate Supreme Court ruling and why it matters
• Statutory damages versus actual damages, and what you lose by registering late
• The 3 month window for preserving full remedies
• Why contractors and freelancers may own work you paid for
• How to build a proactive registration and record keeping process